Keynotes

OPENING KEYNOTE. Wednesday 1 December
Cruising Together: Traditional Knowledge and Academic Practices.
Victor Steffensen and Jacqueline Gothe

The Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) was developed from the aspirations of Indigenous Elders from Kuku Thaypan Country in Cape York, Australia, to preserve and recognise Traditional Indigenous Knowledge. It has continued to grow since its creation in 1999 and is operating in communities at various stages of development across Australia. The project has also been mentored internationally to First Nation groups including Great Lakes Michigan, America, and Moriori in New Zealand. (www.tkrp.com.au)

The TKRP originated from grassroots Indigenous Elder identified need and action. The TKRP methodology is based on:

• Ensuring the survival of cultural knowledge through enabling traditional transfer on-country;
• Providing opportunity to secure, demonstrate and communicate practices that have the ability to innovate contemporary management and community outcomes for the benefit of all generations to come.

Victor and Jacqueline have been working together through the partnership Communicating Shared Traditional Knowledge Project between the TKRP and Visual Communication Design at the University of Technology Sydney since 2003. Recently the focus has been on Indigenous fire practices for the re-invigoration of traditional burning regimes as a way of looking after and managing country.

Other projects include training for the specific needs of recording practices and processes in order to enable traditional transfer of knowledge on-country; production of communication outcomes such as documentaries, animations, short videos, database development and data visualisations for online distribution to ensure the survival of cultural knowledge; supporting through collaborative and participatory practices the development of strategic planning, mentoring and facilitation processes.

This has been a longterm partnership that has changed and grown in response to shifting directions and trajectories. This discussion will provide an opportunity for Victor and Jacqueline to reflect on various participative practices in this project from their individual and relational perspectives and to share some of the outcomes with the delegates.

INDUSTRY KEYNOTE . Thursday 2 December
Shaping practice: Inspire’s youth participation journey
Mariesa Nicholas, Director of Development, Inspire Foundation

The Inspire Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that works with young people to deliver innovative and practical online programs that improve their mental health and wellbeing. Inspire’s mission is to help young people lead happier lives.

Since 1999, over 600 young people have been directly involved in the work of Inspire. Young people participate through both formal and informal mechanisms, contributing to the development, design, delivery and evaluation of the foundation’s programs and services, as well as its internal operations. Inspire involves young people because their unique contribution ensures its services remain relevant and vital. It also recognises that meaningful and valued participation can promote the mental health and wellbeing of the individuals involved.

This keynote will discuss Inspire’s approach to participation, drawing on stories from the field and the results of a year-long youth participation evaluation. It will illustrate the challenges, lessons and successes which have shaped the foundation’s practice to date and the key questions it’s gearing up to tackle in the future.

Mariesa is responsible for leading the user research and strategy development for Inspire and its consulting clients. She is a strong advocate for including users in the design process, balancing their needs alongside evidence-based research and expert advice to create authentic services that make an impact.

Recently, Mariesa has led projects for the National Eating Disorders Collaboration and the Scanlon Foundation. She is currently working on Inspire’s project to reshape the ReachOut service for a new generation of young people.

CLOSING KEYNOTE. Friday 3 December.
Participation – exploring the wider political questions and utopian moments.
Professor Ina Wagner, Institute of Technology Assessment & Design, Vienna University of Technology.

Abstract: Participation as a concept and commitment has one of its origins in the historical and varied discourse on the complex notion of ‘Civil Society’, with its process dimension – its foundation in discourse, conflict, and mutual understanding; its moral basis – self-organization, community, and solidarity; its utopian moments – designing futures, challenging power relationships; its notion of multiple – political, legal, social, and cultural – citizenship; and its focus on the role of advocatory-humanitarian organizations. A second discourse of relevance for Participatory Design is organized around the debate on the ‘reflexive aspects’ of modernity on the one hand, the media as socializing agencies on the other hand.

Exploring these roots helps think about challenges for Participatory Design in the coming years. This keynote takes set of questions as a starting point for reflecting on these challenges. Whom to engage with in participatory design projects is an increasingly critical factor, considering the multiplicity of stakeholders and their constituencies, as well as the marginality and frailty of some of the people we may want to include. Connected to this is the question of how to influence the power relations that shape the boundaries of participatory spaces, what is possible within them, and who may enter, with which identities, discourses and interests. Is there a room for opening up ‘closed spaces’ through greater (public) involvement and accountability or for achieving a wider diversity and fluidity of spaces of engagement in a project? How to deal with the ethical motivation and responsibilities that Participatory Design involves, in particular how do we engage with borders and ‘the marginal’. Finally, how can the utopian moments in a project be driven forward? This requires addressing issues of creativity and innovation.

These questions are not new to Participatory Design but they need to be reflected on more systematically, given the fact that designers work more and more with heterogeneous communities (instead of in small, self-contained workplaces), sometimes in poor countries with their own very special cultural heritage where designers often enter as strangers; that a plethora of new media are available, with their potential for connecting, representing, and sharing but also their inherent ambiguities; and so many more design opportunities open up in areas that require the development of new methods and a particular ‘ethical stance’.

Professor Ina Wagner is a leading European academic in the field of work and technology. At the Vienna University of Technology (TUW) she has built up a unique interdisciplinary research unit (within a traditional computer science faculty), bringing together expertise in sociology, ethnography, psychology, and computer science for the study of work practices and organisations, as well as the design of supporting technologies. Her major intellectual project is to achieve a deeper understanding of (collaborative) work practices and technology use in fields as varied as health care, architecture and urban planning, and other professional contexts. Ina has edited and written numerous books and authored over 150 papers on a variety of technology-related issues, amongst them computer-support of hospital work and of architectural design and planning, with a strong focus on CSCW issues, a feminist perspective in science and technology, and ethical and political issues in systems design. She is very well known and respected within the Participatory Design community.